L. Narsi Narasimhan, Ph.D. is a former professor of Management Science and Management Information Systems at the DuPree College of Management at Georgia Tech. In 1993, he became an entrepreneur and advisor to several startup firms. He is a co-founder and CEO of Paalam, Inc. Narsi is widely recognized in the South East as the founder of the Indian Professionals Network.

"The impact of Indian Americans in healthcare has been tremendous. For over 25 years now, Indian American doctors have done a superb job in establishing a good reputation for themselves and in building a positive image of the community in the US."

Gone are the days when the word India or Indian conjured up, in the minds of mainstream Americans, the images of snake charmers and hungry children. Of course, India is still a poor country with malnourished children and it has many snake charmers as well. But, the dominant image that the American mainstream has of the NRI/PIO community is one of well-educated, very professional and highly successful medical doctors, businessmen and computer programmers. In this column, we will focus on the impact Indian Americans have made in the healthcare profession. 

Indian doctors, over the past 25 years, have done a superb job in establishing a very good reputation for themselves, and in building a positive image of Indians in the US, says Dr. P. Ravi Sarma, an oncologist in Snellville, GA. An article by Graham McMahon in the June 10th issue of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, speaks very highly of the contributions made by International Medical Graduates (IMG) to the American healthcare sector. It claims that 21% of the IMGs come from India. The Philippines comes in as distant second at the 9% level. It also states that 17% of physicians in Georgia earned their degrees abroad.

In the 1960s, the shortage of physicians was recognized and physicians were placed in the category of skilled labor in short supply. Between 1965 and 1977, physicians were eligible for immigration to this country, once they completed the ECFMG requirements. Throughout the decades immigrant physicians have provided- and continue to do so- critically needed care in public institutions like inner city hospitals, rural areas, indigent care clinics etc. It is estimated that there are more than 800 medical doctors of Indian origin in Georgia. It may be worth finding out how many medical students of Indian origin are enrolled in the four medical schools in Georgia. Given the family support (i.e. family pressure), I won’t be surprised if that number is a couple of hundreds. Major metropolitan areas like Atlanta also tend to attract established doctors from other rural areas around the country.

According to Dr. Sarma, “communication, especially the nuances of the language is very important, and Indians are very good at English.” There is a severe shortage of nurses in this country today, and is expected to become even more acute. In a field traditionally dominated by the Filipinos, there are a few companies that are attempting to bring nurses from India as guest workers on H1-B visas. 

There are many Indian Americans who have built very impressive medical practices. Dr. J.J. Shah and Dr. Naresh Parikh are the two names that come to mind readily. I am sure there are scores of practices that are worth mentioning.

The influence of Indian doctors is apparent when we look at the clout of the nonprofit organizations they have built, like the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (www.aapiUSA.org) and its local sister group Georgia Association of Physicians of Indian Heritage (www.GAPI.org). The health fairs and health clinics that many doctors offer either as part of BAPS/BAPSCare or the IACA/Festival of India or Gujarati Samaj or TAMA or other organizations are extremely well received. In fact, even the IPN meetings that were organized by Dr. Naresh Parikh or Dr. Inderpal Singh or Dr. Gulshan Harjee or Dr. K.M. Venkat Narayan, that deal with healthcare issues have always attracted good attendance and positive feedbacks. Sure, free medical advice and discount priced (if not free) tests and medicine certainly are an attraction; but, the real value that many elderly with not so good English see in such health fairs is that they get to explain their problem in Gujarati or Telugu and get accurate diagnosis and prescriptions.

Talking of nonprofit organizations, three and a half years back, the Atlanta chapter of South Asian Public Health Association (www.SAPHA.net) was formed. Its president, Ms. Shalini Parekh credits the presence of CDC and Emory University School of Public Health as major factors in the vibrant public health community in Atlanta. Dr. Vishnu-Priya Sneller, an Epidemiologist with CDC, is a rare example of Indian Americans seeking a career in disease prevention and public health services. Prof. Satya Jonnalagadda’ research in Nutrition and Prof. Sadhna Diwan’s research in aging, especially as they apply to the Indian American community also fall in that category. We will not even get into alternate medicine or yoga or mental health fields here.

I hope that this short column sets some foundation for future detailed discussions on these important topics. 

Please send in your comments to narsi@paalam.com or editor@nripulse.com.